Derek is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at UNC Greensboro. He has PhDs in Zoology and Philosophy. He specializes in philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, and environmental ethics/philosophy. He works “primarily on biological individuality and explanation and causal reasoning in biology. [He is] particularly interested in the problem of how to approach the complex and hierarchical nature of living systems when investigating biological phenomena and constructing explanations. [He has] ongoing projects on biological individuality, holobionts, robustness, causal explanation, speciation and lineage concepts, and biological organization. [He also has] side projects in the history of biology, on marine population connectivity, and on a Buddhist approach to the ontology of living systems” (from his professional website).
Website: Derek J Skillings
Title: You are a holobiont. What does this mean for your health?
Abstract: Host-associated microbiomes play a variety of important roles in host health and disease. Attempts to understand and make predictions about complex host-microbiome interactions have led many researchers to talk about microbiomes—especially human-associated ones—in terms of being either healthy or dysbiotic. In this presentation I will look at some alternatives for making sense of “healthy microbiome” talk. I will argue that existing “naturalistic”, or non-evaluative, accounts of human health are not appropriate for microbiomes, and that notions of ecosystem health face similar shortcomings. These problems suggest that “microbiome health” might only be definable in evaluative terms and may never extend beyond a metaphor to organismal health. I will end by looking at some possibilities for understanding overall host health given the importance and ubiquity of microbiomes.
Pieces by Derek in Aeon Magazine:
What constitutes an individual organism in biology? | Aeon Essays
I, holobiont. Are you and your microbes a community or a single entity? | Aeon Ideas
